Moist Flourless Chocolate Cake for All Occasions

Vibrant daisies from Carlsbad's Flower Fields

Traveling is a tiresome activity. You need energy to laugh, to keep up a good spirit. The best cure for a tired body is warm chocolate cake and a book in bed--the add on would be bathing beneath the warm spring time sunlight as you enjoy yourself in a timeless manner. How I love lazy days.

We don't have that many laid back days to so we should never take "free" time for granted. After all, there is no free lunch.

Layer cake batter with a chocolate ganache inside to create the lava texture

My day comes with a 30 minute preparation, and it will stay in the fridge for up to three days. When you bake it right away you get oozing chocolate lava cake, and the leftovers become flourless chocolate cake. They can then be blended in moose or cookies as sub ingredients. There is too many reasons to stay in a lazy mood and just indulge in chocolate.

Today's Snack is Hummus on Pita

I love to snack--in front of the computer and TV, when I'm reading, typing, studying, driving, daydreaming. I snack whenever and wherever. For this reason I hate crumbly food. They can be a bitch to clean if you don't watch out for where you're eating. I once end up with apple crust all over my chest after browsing tastespotting.com.

The lesson I learned from experience is to pick a crumb-less snack. I'll save pies and biscuits for better times.

My snack preference led to my recent addiction over hummus. What can go wrong with a thick bean paste and a sturdy piece of pita? One cane of garbanzo beans made enough hummus for me to snack on for the last three days.

Roasted garlic hummus on pita

I can't remember when is the last time I made hummus. I think it was when I first got my Vitamix. I followed the Vitamix recipe and made a white sesame hummus. This time I roasted some garlics and blend it along with some chilly pepper. I also squirt some honey during the blending process to balance the savory flavor.

This is the recipe that I used. They are all very standard ingredients. I wonder what spices are used in a traditional hummus? You'll see an update soon because hummus is unlikely to go away anytime soon because midterms are coming up. I need my lovely crumb-less hummus & pita to fuel me through all-nighters!

Soup on a Lazy Day

A few days ago was one of those days where I find myself tugged in my blankie and did absolutely nothing. My lack of energy means that the fridge was empty, nothing but frozen mackerel, half an onion and a carrot. I guess that's enough to make a cup of warm soup. Dig deeper into the fridge I uncovered gochujang! (The paste was so dry--from lack of use--that I bended my spoon when I struggled to get a spoonful out)

Star ingredient for a spicy stew: Gochujang

It's a spicy bean baste similar to Japanese miso. Gochujang gives soup a spicy kick, and it is commonly used in Korean beef stews or in tofu soups (soondubu). There is nothing better than a cold night with a cup of spicy soup for TV dinner.

So I sautéed the onion first with garlic. This is my favorite step in cooking, the fragrance that cooked onion and garlic gives out. Yummmmmm

As I added all my ingredients, I started wondering which type of alcohol I should add. Is there a rule to what type of wine you should use? My own rule is if the soup is dark use red wine, light then white. If it's an Asian dish use either Japanese milin or Taiwanese mijiu--both made from rice but the Japanese one have a sweeter taste. Since I am using gochujang, a Korean ingredient, I decided to go with Japanese milin because ern...the two countries are right next to each other so the flavor should be similar?

The only type of wine I would advise NOT use in cooking is cabernet sauvignon! The wine is too strong, and it will end up flavoring the dish too much. The strong flavor is also hard to blend with the other ingredients. I'm not sure if there is a specific wine better for cooking or not. I usually just save a glass or two of wine in the fridge for cooking. What you think?

A tip I learned to remove floating fats and bits of whatever in a soup is to put a sheet of baking paper large enough to cover your pot. The baking sheet does a good job at absorbing oil. After simmering your soup simply remove the baking sheet and you're left with a clear soup.

Here is the recipe if you want to cozy up on your couch too. I love how soups can hold abundant amount of flavor. Feel free to use any type of fish fillet, but probably go with some leftover or cheap fish because the flavor will end up sort of bland in your soup. As for the veggies, add potatoes for a thicker base and more tomatoes for more citric flavor, perhaps some lemon juice to keep it light.

No More Excuses but Yes to Shake!

Summer is coming! At least in Los Angeles the sun decided to come back out again! I love to complain about the weather in LA to friends living on the east coast. Like a few days ago when I took out my winter jack cause it was 60 (or 15C) in the day. I had on a scarf and pulled down my boots from the top drawer. What a perfect chance to take out my winter gear again (har har, I miss my President's Day weekend at New York when I had to sleep with woolen socks and long PJ pants).

I like how cold weather gives you the excuse to munch on hot chocolate or warm cookies. You tell yourself your body will burn it off in the cold. But then I give myself the same excuse when the weather gets hot. A smoothie isn't that bad; I'll go out and be active cause it is hot...then I'll burn off the ice cream.

No enough of excuses! I need to curb my sweet tooth period. That way I can taste the world's cuisine before I develop type II diabetes.

If you are like me who love sweets and need it at all times, try this healthy shake made of kale, cashew, date, and cocoa powder. The veggie and cashew fills you up, and the date and cocoa powder kicks up the taste without giving you a sugar hype.

Four ingredients + water to make a healthy shake!

The best part about this shake is that you actually get the real shake consistency! The magic lies in the cashew. The cashew powder thickens the drink, so if you prefer your shake so thick you can barely get it up the straw, then double the cashew from a thin layer to a thicker layer in the blender. I also added a few cacao beans and two spoonfuls of cocoa powder for stronger flavor. After blending the three together on Variation 5 speed for a minute or two, you should get the following result:

Cashew & cacao & chocolate powder

With that as your base, fill your blender up with either date or honey as sweetener and fill the cup with kale.

Kale is such a versatile veggie plus it is super healthy. I've heard about kale chips, salad, stews...My most favorite way is still to blend it up into a shake though. It's too fibery for my liking, and it takes a while to cook down.

What I have at the end of all this hard work, thank you vitamix, is some guilt free shake that will replace my lunch today...if I can stop myself from entering the kitchen.

"I'm no ugly shake!"

Time to use up leftover almond meals

My roommate and I dug in before the almond honey cake could cool!

A problem with obsession is you tend to dedicate so much time, effort, and resources, and at the same time ignoring your conscious and abandoning your senses. When the crave fades, however, you're left with a big mess. You question yourself, what have I done? have I lost my mind?

What I have in my kitchen is bag after bag of almond meal--some are grounded with the brown almond skin; some are silky and some lumpy. They serve as constant remainder that I only made one successful batch of macarons with a frill out of I don't know how many batches.

Time to get rid of them. And lower my blood sugar from regular stuffing of tasty almond sugar cookies.

Urgh but almond meal have such limited use. After googling some almond meal recipes, I found out that people mainly make muffins or financier from them. Nothing really arouse my interest until I stumbled across Mmingcook's almond-honey cake post!

No guilt cake for tea time!

What surprised me was her recipe used neither flour nor sugar. Also the ingredient list was short and very accessible. Any home baker would have baking powder, honey, salt, and eggs at home. So preparing the ingredients was no biggy.

Maybe not everyone has honey at home. I didn't have the liquid type of honey the recipe called for, all I have is some honey solid I got from Shanghai. The recipe called for 1/2 cup of honey, so I dissolved 2 tablespoon of the honey below with half a cup of boiling water. Then let the honey dissolve and add the mixture with the rest of the ingredients when the mixture cooled a little.

If you don't have honey, I think you can use sugar instead, but be sure add some liquid. The batter can be very heavy. I thought I made a total mess by substituting honey water for honey because when I poured the batter into my brownie pan, the batter didn't form a smooth ribbon-like texture. I had to dump the thing into the pan. But the cake came out very fluffy. 

I guess the lack of gluten from flour contributes to the lightness. Plus the egg whites helped the cake rise a little, and perhaps the hot water helped too? Like how fluffy cupcakes sometimes call for hot liquid? Anyways if you're looking for a light alternative to tea cake, definitely try this recipe. 

PS If you don't have almond meal on hand, simply pulse 2 cups of almonds with some confectioner's sugar. Adding the sugar absorbs some almond oil that might sip out in the blending process.